


One more story

by quarantian



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Beta no beta, Gen, Paragon Shepard (Mass Effect), Post-Mass Effect 3, We Die Like Men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-17
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:28:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24771646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quarantian/pseuds/quarantian
Summary: Commander Shepard defeated the Reapers in 2186, getting the Milky Way 300 years of peace. Now, a new danger surfaces and the Commander is long dead along with most of the old team. Some previously unknown aliens with firepower that matches even a smaller Reaper Destroyer appear on the verge of the galaxy and start destroying colonies. Someone has to step up.Jeff Bryson, human biotic commando, Alliance marine and Spectre gets the seemingly impossible job of beating them. On his journey there will be assisting him some old friends, some even older enemies and the women and the children too.
Relationships: Male Shepard/Liara T'Soni
Comments: 3
Kudos: 4





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nobody starts on top.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am writing this fanfic partly to get my ideas for a better (at least for me) ME4 out of my head and partly to practise my English so I am really sorry if I made a mistake. Please let me know if you like it or not. I welcome criticism (except if it's "delet dis sh*t") and please comment if I showed my inability to construct a proper sentence since this is my first attempt at writing something longer in English.

„…And every life is a special story on its own.”

“Tell me another story about the Shepard.”

“It’s getting late but okay… one more story. This happened before the Reaper War, before Commander Shepard was named a Spectre, before the galaxy changed forever. Shepard was just an ordinary young man back then, just like you …”

Six-year-old Jeff Bryson didn't know what he got himself into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am working on the first true chapter right now but I wanted to test the archive with a shorter story and I had to make some connection to the games so here you go.
> 
> Yeah, I'm having fun with the names but I plan to get serious with other stuff.
> 
> Jeff Bryson isn't a relative of Garret Bryson, they just share the name and his first name is the legacy of our friend Joker in the cockpit.


	2. Twelve Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeff Bryson applies to Alliance Military, traps his instructor in a singularity, goes to Interplanetary Combatives Academy and eventually he becomes an N7 on a mission where he meets an old friend.
> 
> Re-edited on 2021. 01. 04.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for those 5 users who opened this just to read the 5-line prologue but I hope this counts as a real chapter.
> 
> And there's no name without references to other characters because I'm bored :D

Jeff Bryson stood before the Alliance recruitment office. He couldn’t help but feel nervous about it. His main goal in his life had been the same since that night with his grandfather when he told him about the Great War 300 years before: live up to the legacy of Shepard. It might’ve been childish but that was him and nothing could ever change it.

He wasn’t afraid of joining, he was afraid of a rejection. When he was a little boy, he sometimes dreamt of going back 2183 and getting a photo with the Commander but since he wasn’t able to do so, he applied to the Systems Alliance military instead. In the weeks before, he answered any possible question they would ask and tried to prepare himself for the physical evaluation. He was quite strong from the years of work, but he doubted that would be enough.

After what felt like days but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, he got invited in.

There were three officers sitting behind a desk, one flight lieutenant, one infantry captain and one from intelligence. After scanning his ID, they asked a few questions about his family (he had one brother, Rupert, working as a chef, their parents lived in London but came from Montreal and both were starship engineers), his other relationships and other things he didn’t know the reason for (“Do you have problems with working with AIs?”) and at the end of the hearing, they said that he had the necessary qualities but he should come back a few days later to get a real answer.

A week later Jeff Bryson stood before the Alliance recruitment office once again, even more nervously if possible. He didn’t have to wait for long that time. Now the intelligence officer was gone and in the place of the infantry captain stood a soldier. He didn’t have much to show for the first glimpse aside from the lack of any rank insignia but he was definitely a dangerous man. His eyes never stopped, always searching for any hazard in his surroundings and on his bald head he had more faded scars than anybody could survive, and still, he stood there, looking intimidating even while unarmored.

The flight lieutenant from before was the first to speak.

“Jeff Bryson, I am happy to inform you that your application was approved to the Alliance Navy. Let me present Commander Nazar Lang, who will be your infantry training officer.”

“Welcome to the military, Serviceman.” The commander said in a surprisingly high-pitched voice for a man of his size. “Let me tell you what you should expect from the next ten or more years.”

“The next week you’ll go to the London Military Spaceport and show this at Gate 3E.” He produced a white ID card with “Serviceman Recruit Jeff Bryson” on it along with a long number code he couldn’t understand. “You’ll be shipped to Jump Ze..., I mean Gagarin Station, and you’ll get your genetic enhancements in three days. You’ll have a month there until the medical crew confirms that they work well with your system. During that time, you’ll get some basic education all FNGs should know and if everything works well, your unit will go to the Luna Base for basic training. You got approved to the Biotics…”

“Sorry for interrupting, Sir but how can I be a biotic? I thought you have to get exposed to a high amount of eezo in utero.”

“Serviceman, your mother worked with starships for a long time before your birth. In fact, after three hundred years of living in eezo-rich environments, most humans do have some biotic abilities, though they’re usually too weak to use for anything but lowering the weight of an object by at best three percent. You’ve some impressive readings, so prepare for getting outfitted with at least an L24 implant.

“Anyway, after basic weapon training, you’ll have to specialize as a Sentinel, a Vanguard or an Adept based on your scores. Any questions?”

“Is there anything I should do before shipping out?”

“Say goodbye to your friends and family because chances are you won’t see them again. And don’t be late.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Then I should go, Bryson.”

“So long, Commander Lang.”

On July 6, 2468 Jeff departed from London Spaceport with excitement and the feeling of a new life. At the shuttle, he got to know the other fellow recruits on the two-hour trip. They were nice guys but Jeff still felt as an outsider between them. There was for example Malik Toma, a 22-year old intelligence recruit from Beirut who looked at everything with a suspicious gaze, which was probably really good for an intelligence agent but still unsettling or David Harper, a huge 25-year old guy who applied to the heavy infantry. He had a good sense of humor and he really liked using it on others. Fortunately, they arrived before somebody (presumably without any success) tried to kill him for his jokes.

After they left the shuttle, their new training officers were waiting for them on the landing pad. There was a flight commander, an operations captain, an intelligence officer and Commander Nazar Lang, now in full black and grey heavy armor, with at least four or five different guns strapped to his back, starting some curious conversations near the far end of the platform. After the “Welcome Corps”, as one of the recruits called them, left, a quartermaster showed them their bunks. They didn’t have enough place on the floor if everyone was in the room but since they’ll be spending on Gagarin a few weeks, nobody complained. It was late in the night on Earth so everybody hurried to sleep because they would have to wake up tomorrow at 06.00.

The gene therapy worked well on Jeff so he started to learn that damned terminology. At least he now knew what FNG meant though it didn’t make him much happier. He got assigned to a unit of his age, for which he was grateful. They learnt how to disassemble a gun, repair and clean it and then put everything back in its place in less than a few minutes. He wasn’t that good in it, some of his peers managed to do it in eighty seconds when he still struggled with the heat sink but over time he got better. And then came the time for the biotic implant.

It was a long operation until everything was in its place and he spent most of the time sedated but it was still an unpleasant experience. After a few days he could go back to his now familiar but still too small bunk but only with his L26 multifunctional implant turned off. It was still in late experimental state but they said it was fairly stable aside from having a dangerous impact on pregnant women which he wasn’t likely to become.

After the month on Jump Zero, they got back onto the shuttle which brought them and flew to Luna Base. Basic training meant shooting practice targets, which he wasn’t really good at and some throwing-stuff-around with biotics, which he enjoyed. After two months, he got reassigned to the Adepts. There he finally felt in his element and quickly climbed to the first place of the unofficial leaderboard of the unit. While some of the others struggled with simple shockwaves, he once accidentally managed to create a singularity able to suck in the instructor. Though he was a nigh underweight young man with his back turned to them, one of his legs still in basic and almost no field experience, so it shouldn't count as a great accomplishment. Still, that was the turning point of his career because apparently some higher-up didn't like the guy or whatever.

In the following years, he spent nine months on marine training and he got promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. After that, he went to ICT, which still carried on with the traditions of the 22nd century, although “the villa” was very far from the place of the original Vila Militar in Rio de Janeiro. After the Reapers destroyed the whole city, the Alliance relocated the N-school to the moon Titan. For eight years, he participated in the hardest possible training in a liquid methane-rich environment where only the toughest could even survive and between the sessions, he was on dangerous missions without a break. He served under different captains, fought countless pirates and grew to respect Commander Shepard even more, who fought and won without the help of advanced technology of Jeff’s age, against a civilization even more advanced than Jeff’s.

When Lieutenant Commander Jeff Bryson reached the age of 29 and the designation of N6, he was assigned to a mission (called Operation Visit by the intel) very different from the previous ones. He had to infiltrate a Yahg military base with a completely new squad in an interspecies operation. The task was to free twenty-six civilians from a maximum-security prison without compromising themselves. The small force comprised of a batarian, a geth, a turian and a krogan. That time Jeff was really questioning his decision of joining 11 years before. Still, someone had to do it so he tried to socialize with the squad, even when they can’t tell their name for some stupid reason intel deemed important.

He was the most nervous with the geth, Visitor 2 because he’d never seen one before. They didn’t really leave Rannoch since the war because there was still much to rebuild and because the people of the galaxy were still afraid of them. Nevertheless, he turned out to be a nice person, set aside the fact that he was 2 meters tall and had a big glowing “eye”. And also that he wasn't really a person. Though he really much acted like it.

The batarian, Visitor 3 had an interesting view of the world, almost human-like but still not human. The centuries old quarrel with Jeff's species (amplified after the batarians almost went extinct by the Reapers while humanity got stronger) wasn’t going to make it easier. They managed to build a working relationship but none of them was willing to go further.

The turian, Visitor 4 looked like a regular turian, acted like a regular turian and carried enough firepower to wipe out a whole platoon.

The real surprise was the krogan, dubbed Visitor 5. He looked rather young for a krogan, had blue eyes and noticeably liked to headbutt anything on the battlefield but far from enemies he was actually a normal person, which Jeff couldn’t really grasp. Though they improved a lot since the curing of the genophage, they were still known galaxy-wide as warmongering barbarians. Apparently, this one wasn’t. Well, aside from war.

The operation started like in the books but none of them liked it. Since when does anything go by the books in the military? They easily reached the prison level with the civilians without drawing any attraction to themselves and they had managed to free all of them when hell broke loose.

It started with a series of slow beeps from somewhere in the crowd of civilians. They accelerated and as he realized the impending danger they were in, he shouted the only possible command: “RUN!”

It was too late. The bomb implanted in one of the civilians went off, killing those nearest to him and his turian squadmate, who was in the middle of the crowd, got injured too. Nothing serious but he wouldn’t be fighting for a few weeks. And then he saw the approaching yahg.

He could think of plenty of curse words to say but they didn’t have time for it so he chose to utter the one every marine learns in the first weeks of training and then passes on to his successors: “Damnit.”

They had to get out of there without more losses. Running wasn’t an option, the yahg were faster than any of them. Their only chance was to fight them until the civilians and their fellow injured turian escape.

“Five, escort the civilians to safety, Four, go with them if you can. The others stay here and fight. Good luck, everybody.”

The three remaining soldiers faced the three attacking yahg. One they could take, for two they could make a hard opposition but against three, they were hopeless. He had to stop at least one before they attack his friends.

He had one choice, though he knew he would most likely pass out from the struggle. With a huge effort, he put the biggest of their enemies to stasis. He groaned from the exercise and his vision started to fade but he still saw the geth beside him activating his extra shields and the batarian disappearing behind his tactical cloak. He knew he'd have a bad nosebleed in a few minutes for the remaining part of the day.

The next moment everything broke loose. One yahg got a shotgun blast in his face from point-blank range and, though it didn’t paralyzed him, he was surprised enough to let Three go and disappear again. The geth pulled out his assault rifle and shot him in the gut with perfect accuracy and then he crippled his legs and shot him in the head multiple times. One enemy was down but they lost the advantage of surprise and Jeff’s hold on the other yahg started to weaken so they started to fall back to the detention level.

The biggest yahg finally broke out of the stasis and he straightened his back. He (or she?) was larger than they expected, almost twice as big as the Geth Prime. He let go of a roar and stormed after the squad. His smaller friend drew his assault rifle. Jeff assumed neither of them recognized it but it surely looked dangerous. The yahg shot the wall near the batarian and the bullets penetrated the reinforced concrete wall easily. Jeff wasn’t sure if he wanted to get into close combat with him but it was still better than getting shot without any hope of shooting back. So he concentrated and pulled his gun.

It almost worked. Pulling the yahg would’ve been suicide at that point but the gun was lighter. The only problem was that the enemy was still clutching the trigger so the rifle let go of a spring of bullets. Luckily, Jeff didn’t get injured but it fried his shields. He quickly threw up a barrier, slowly he realized that his squadmates had lined up beside him and started shooting. Unfortunately, it didn’t really work out since their adversaries had some seemingly impenetrable shields.

Visitor Two pulled out an incineration grenade and threw it behind the two yahg. They didn’t notice it of if they noticed, they didn’t mind it until it blew up in their back. That was the first moment the yahg showed that something hurt them. They fell back for a few meters, just out of the geth’s throwing range but after a few moments they regained their confidence and they started advancing again. Jeff finally regained his strength, he sent them a shockwave but it didn’t stop them nor the singularity which was bigger than the one that sucked up the instructor.

Before they could give up the fight, two shotgun blasts hit the back of the yahg’s heads from behind the corner. No matter how tough they were, the Graal Spike Thrower killed Thresher Maws tougher than any yahg. Their heads exploded in a moment and they dropped to the land. Their krogan companion was clearly grinning as he strode through the room to them.

“The others are safe on the ship.” he said. “Why do you bring these toy weapons to a real battle?”

Jeff laughed. “Hey, we killed one with these, it’s not our mistake that two more was there.”

The geth interrupted. “I suggest we move on before more of these species arrive.”

Everybody agreed.

They almost reached the exit when two yahg ambushed them. Now they had no chance against their almost full squad. The batarian disappeared, only to materialize behind the two and threw a distruptor grenade which shut down their shields and weapons. Now that he had enough free processing power, the geth started a combat drone which reached them and exploded. In the momentary disturbance Jeff launched a singularity and now he managed to catch them in it. In the following moment he threw a biotic field into the singularity and the explosion killed both. And if that only left them dazed, a krogan with a Graal was more than enough to finish them.

Jeff Bryson, now a Commander, stood in his bunk a week later. His new N7 symbol on his chest still felt undeserved. But Alliance Command decided that surviving against two yahg for thirty minutes and putting one to stasis was enough for the designation. And now he had to endure all the celebrations and speeches and congratulations. He didn’t want to be the Shepard anymore. But now he became one of them. He didn't want to think about the less comfortable implications. He was one of the best soldiers humanity had to offer. And the beginning of Shepard was just the same.

The knock on his door startled him. It sounded more like somebody tried to break it open. “Come in” he said. At the door stood his krogan companion.

“That was a good fight” was his opening sentence. So, still a krogan but hides it well. “I fought my best on the Normandy but it was the best I had in a century. Goddamn, putting a yahg to stasis and I wasn’t there to see.”

Jeff stared at him wordlessly.

“Let me introduce myself. I am Urdnot Grunt, a Spectre. It was my job there to evaluate you on mission and decide if you get appointed. And you did a damn good job. So, Commander Jeff Bryson, if you want, I’ll recommend you for further evaluation to the Spectres.”

“Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.” Hell, this krogan is absolutely not an average one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I planned this as a game plot and I'll put here the differences if ME3 didn't end as well as some of us (and of the Milky Way) wanted.
> 
> 1\. If the geth were killed, Visitor 2 was a quarian. (They say the same but with other words.) If both of the races were destroyed, it's one commando less in the team and Grunt goes alone to help the prisoners. Also, V4 (the turian) dies because Grunt doesn't arrive in time to help out.  
> 2\. If the genophage was sabotaged, Grunt (and all the krogans) had realized it and is very grumpy. Also, you can't get any krogan support throughout the game since there is too few of them and they hate humans anyway. They are still alive though but every time they are supporting humanity in my version, they aren't and so you'll need to work more to reach an agreement. (Meanwhile the krogan started genetic experiments on their own and now working on the cure and also new uncomfortable viruses for humanity. It'd make a good side plot.)  
> 3\. If Commander Shepard united the galaxy in a rather bad way (low EMS - Extended cut ratings), the Reapers were right and the overall military strength of the galaxy is reduced because massive forces are patrolling near the borders due to infighting. (You can rectify this but it's a lot harder than if you let the Commander do it.)
> 
> If other differences come to my mind, I'll put them in the end notes. The overall plot will stay the same but there are differences (most of which doesn't affect the events, just the reasoning behind them). This fic should be about the long-term differences Commander Shepard made. We'll see how it turns out.
> 
> So, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> It was really hard to write Grunt grunty but more serious.
> 
> I welcome criticism (except if it's "delet dis sh*t") and please comment if I showed my inability to construct a proper sentence since this is my first attempt at writing something longer in English.
> 
> And if you have an idea for the danger the galaxy is in, please let me know. I have my plans for it but you may have better ideas than me.


	3. From the Shadows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> EMS is kind of a measurement of the unification of the galaxy and I'll use it that way in this summary. If I was programming this, I'd check for some savefile flags but since I'm not, it's good enough to use for calculations. Also Shepard's alignment is more like his philosophy towards aliens and an united galaxy. (Not sure if that's saved though.)
> 
> High EMS, Paragon/Neutral Shepard: The Milky Way had had a peaceful 300 years of races cooperating or at least coexisting under the Council's guidance. Now God, Athame or whoever is out there decided to intervene.
> 
> High EMS, Renegade Shepard: The Milky Way had had a relatively peaceful 300 years of races coexisting under the Council's rule. Now God, Athame or whoever is out there decided to intervene.
> 
> Low EMS, Paragon/Neutral Shepard: The Milky Way had had 300 years of races fighting each other. Now it looks like they should have listened to Shepard.
> 
> Low EMS, Renegade Shepard: The Milky Way had had 300 years of races fighting each other. Now it looks like they should have listened to those preaching about unity.
> 
> Previously _Hopefully a less boring chapter (I'm shit at writing prequels)_.  
> Don't look at me, I know it's bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited: 2021. 01. 07.
> 
> And I did it! I managed to write a chapter which didn't send me to sleep. I'm sorry, I still can't make Grunt stay in-character. He speaks too much.  
> Edit: I reworked his dialogue a bit, should be better.

Two years had passed. Jeff Bryson stood on the bridge of the dreadnought Destiny Ascension (when the first one had got destroyed in a smaller encounter with some slavers 150 years before, the Council had decided to name all its successors the same) and was listening to the most boring and useless tactical briefing of his relatively long career. The captain of the ship was giving a speech about some pirates on the borders of the Attican Traverse and her plans to blast them to nothingness with the fleet. Jeff was only there because Councilor Urdnot Wrex, the first commissioner of ground military operations got bored of the “too much talking, no shooting” (which usually ended with more talking but no one wanted to let him know) and sent General Grunt to take care of it. Who, obviously, sent Jeff before he left for some “peace negotiations” with slavers (which tended to end up in gunfights and dead batarians capable of rivalling the Alpha Relay incident).

Before Jeff could embarrassingly fall asleep in the centre of the second biggest warship of all time (the first being the dead Reaper Harbinger), his omni-tool beeped twice, indicating an incoming transmission. The Spectre gratefully cut off the outer speakers of his helmet and made the gesture for “accept”. When he saw the face of the caller, he immediately tensed. Grunt, his direct commander, mentor and might-be friend _never_ ever called him on a mission and otherwise only when he needed a few extra guns for some unexpectedly strong enemy.

“General” he nodded as a way of greeting.

“Bryson, get your ass to Rannoch ASAP” was the only answer he got. “Bring a nuke gun with you.” The good old M-920 Cain was still the biggest weapon a Spectre would ever need. If Grunt needed one, then he was in serious trouble.

“Aye aye, sir. Bryson out.”

And with this, the Spectre on board practically fled the meeting.

By the time he reached the front hangar, he already got his small stealth ship prepare for takeoff and he asked for permission to leave the dreadnought at the next relay. The ship VI, ESC (or Enhanced Ship Control) did almost all the work, he only had to choose the destination, which was really helpful, since Jeff Bryson couldn’t fly a skycar properly so something like the SPT-23 would’ve been hopeless.

“ESC, set a course to Rannoch. Jump in from the Horse Head Nebula.”

“Yes, sir.”

And Jeff prepared for the long and relatively boring journey.

Low in the orbit of Agetoton, there is a ship. Most of the galaxy doesn’t know about its place or even it’s existence, except for a select few, most of whom had died long before. Now there are only four beings who still remember where the Shadow Broker lives. And they’d never tell anyone.

About the time Spectre Jeff Bryson entered the Pax Relay, the Shadow Broker was standing before the main viewport, overwhelmed with memories. She could make out the silhouette of Ilos a few lightseconds away. The planet she’d first seen at university, but nobody had believed it would be reachable. But she’d done it and helped destroy half of the ruins she’d once hoped to examine. She’d never returned since then, it would’ve brought up so many painful memories. As the Shadow Broker, she couldn’t let herself to become weak, or she’d have had the fate of her predecessor.

The alarm of an incoming priority transmission pulled her out of the brooding. She didn’t expect this, which was a situation very… _unexpected_ for the Shadow Broker. Priority messages could only come from one of her top agents and only in times of great need. And usually they came in packages since usually more agents got the news of something that big. She decided to open the transmission (for the safety of their operations, no agent had a distinctive signature in their communications with the Shadow Broker, which meant no one could track down any of them but also that even the Broker wasn’t an exception).

She was very surprised when she saw that the message had a visual with the audio. More surprised when she recognized Grunt, the “perfect krogan” and their first Spectre on the other end, also one of the fewer and fewer people who knew her true identity. (She assumed that by the end of her life even she would forget who she was before everything happened.)

“Shadow Broker, we have some problems on Rannoch. I am with Aralakh Company and we still can’t kill all of them longer. I need your help with identifying this race and noticing Wrex we’re being overrun.” With that, the video changed from his face to a full-on battle between about twelve warriors of Aralakh Company (bad sign as they were usually twice as much), half of whom she remembered from the Reaper War though they weren’t part of it that time and almost two hundred aliens she’d never seen before.

They were humanoid but their faces looked like some Protheans on a negative picture, with some cybernetics, like those of a husk, though theirs weren’t so prominent. They didn’t look very strong or good but there were too many of them for even Aralakh Company, the most ruthless of krogan troops in the galaxy.

Before she could answer, the krogan continued.

“There’s no more time to talk, try calling for quarrian or geth support, Bryson is coming but he can’t arrive in less than a few hours from Pax. Grunt out.”

“Shadow Broker out.” She said absentmindedly. She had to ask Javik about these creatures, she knew more about Prothean looking things than anyone in the galaxy, except for Javik. But she had work to do before that.

“Glyph, open a channel to the geth consciousness.”

“As you wish, Shadow Broker.”

The next minutes were spent with explanations to the prime on the other side of the communication, who agreed to send some quarian and geth reinforcements in exchange for information about the new species. She postponed it for a time when they knew anything and hoped this would be enough.

She sent a quick message to the Council (well, to Urdnot Wrex because she knew he wouldn’t be asking useless questions like the others) and set off to visit Javik.

When Jeff left the Rannoch Relay, he instantly recognized the problem. An unknown dreadnought the size of the Destiny Ascension was orbiting the first planet of the system. He recognized some smaller quarian-geth carriers attacking it to seemingly no avail. According to the passive sensors’ data it’s green shields were the strength of the Destiny Ascension and nothing in that armada could harm them. Using the stealthcomms (it was a better codename than0 mQEC) of the SPT-23, he sent the information to the Tikkun Spectre buoy, relaying it to the council. He hoped they’d send help, since without it, Rannoch would easily fall. With everything done, he prepared for touchdown at the position General Grunt gave him.

When he reached the ground, he found a strange mixture of krogans, geth platforms, quarians and some mysterious aliens he’d never met before. He figured they were the enemies since everyone else seemed to be shooting at them. With a wink at his helmet interface, he activated his communicator and connected to the frequency the General used. Radio chatter filled his ears. He pushed through the battle to the krogan company (there were only ten left of them) and approached their leader.

“General. I reported the situation to the Council and brought the M-920.”

“Get to the left flank, Bryson, they’re getting overwhelmed.”

“Aye aye, sir. Good luck.”

“I’ll need it. I’m running out of ammo.” Suddenly, he switched to shooting. “EVERYONE DOWN, NUKE GUN LOADING!”

The warriors followed his order like their life depended on it, which actually did, and the next moment a quarter of the enemy got completely obliterated. Thirty down, a hundred to go. As Jeff left for the left flank, he thought he could faintly hear the grinning General of the krogan army muttering something about “fun” and “more”.

The encounter after his arrival was a tad boring, after the Office of Special Tactics and Reconnaissance had ditched the thermal clips in favor of the good old HMWA products’ upgraded versions, there wasn’t any need to stop fire for any reason and the targeting VI helped almost every round to hit. Add this to the krogan spike throwers which impaled three or four enemies with a shot and the nuke gun, which destroyed whole companies with one shot and there was nothing the enemies could’ve done to not die. Except, of course, dropping more troops until the defense forces got tired. Unfortunately, they did exactly that.

It felt like days of fighting and fighting uselessly against some unknown monsters (Jeff couldn’t think of them any other way after all the shooting and dying), when almost every warrior on their side got murdered and there wasn’t anyone left except for Jeff, Grunt, two krogan battlemasters, three geth armatures and an injured quarian. The remaining force felt too tired to think, they become simple targeting robots (except for the geth, their patience was unlimited, they didn’t need to sleep and they were already robots but only one of them had its main weapon in working condition and their communication equipment was jammed so they couldn’t call for reinforcements) with their accuracy decaying and Jeff’s biotic attacks getting weaker and weaker over time. When they almost lost all hope of surviving, something blue flashed (a welcome sight after all the green flashes destroying friendly ships) and a shuttle transporting more troops to the surface blew up, and after it all its friends in perfect synch.

The Destiny Ascension with two smaller carriers appeared in orbit and tipped the chances in their favor. Jeff was now truly grateful for the boring mission against the Attican pirates. The fighting went on for a few minutes but now, when the hostile dreadnought couldn’t land more troops, they started diminishing. One of the last now practice targets on ground pulled out a very badnews-looking metal cylinder, pressed a button and threw it in their direction. The soldiers scattered, trying to get out of its reach and almost all of them were successful. The geth were too slow to reach safety but the green blow didn’t seem to have an effect of them. Grunt was also hit by it and he dropped to the ground without a sound. After a few dreadful seconds, he opened his eyes and groaned “Food”, then slipped back into unconsciousness. Jeff didn’t think that he would’ve survived it if it hit him but the krogan body was way tougher than a human.

Above them, the space battle came to an end. The hostile ship couldn’t stand against the combined firepower of the Destiny Ascension II Defense Fleet, though it could cause massive scars on its hull and drained all the shields. It wouldn’t be fighting anything in a year. Without a ground team to extract and with the massive hole on its nose, it executed the only possible maneuver of a ship in that predicament: it jumped to FTL and escaped.

The post-mission briefing was quick, and Jeff was now sitting on a bench in the medbay of the Citadel flagship. A medic appeared next to him.

“He will make it. It was a nerve agent that didn't really work on him since we don't have a nervous system in the first place. The troubling news is that it managed to affect Spectre Grunt. He won't be in fighting condition anytime soon.”

“Thank you, Dr. Drogg.” So General Urdnot Grunt would make it but only because of his rather special conductive circulatory system and he'd still feel it for a time. Something Jeff never had imagined to live through.

 _Still,_ he thought while he was flying back to the Citadel for a long-needed system check-up of the SPT-23, _I don’t want to meet these guys again._

The Shadow Broker was back home after visiting Javik. He’d said he hadn’t known anything though there were some rumors in his time, which he’d wanted to look into before he’d said anything. When she reached the control room, she got assaulted by more than a dozen video feeds of worlds attacked by these unknown aliens. If it didn’t look bad enough, the planets were on the fringes of the Milky Way, far from each other. Everything pointed to the implication that those were just scouting operations, and if these ships needed the biggest ships of the known galaxy to defeat, they were in serious trouble.

With a sigh, she opened a message she kept from when she was only over a hundred. A glowing face appeared on one of the holoscreens. A face she hadn’t seen in life since that night on Earth. Commander John Shepard opened his mouth and started speaking.

“Liara” She hadn’t heard nor used this name in two centuries. “If you see this, then I’m probably dead or closed off from the galaxy. That means I can’t be there to stop the Reapers so if they are still there, I’m trusting this to you.” He looked relaxed and calm if slightly morose, which he hadn’t for a moment after the Reapers arrived so she assumed he’d recorded this before he attacked the Collector homeworld. “If you run out of choices and you have an enemy that endangers all sentient life in the galaxy, gather everyone you trust and get to the attached coordinates. There, you’ll find something that could help you defeat any Reaper, if used correctly. I beg you not to use or search for it unless you must and not to reveal any of this information to the council. Though they wouldn’t give a shit about it. Goodbye, Liara. I love you.” And with this, the recording ended. Liara T’Soni straightened from her hunched position. She had some calls to make.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year if you read this!
> 
> I was gone for a long time, I know. I'm sorry. Most of it, I was on holiday or I didn't feel like writing. (And when I did, I didn't have time for it :D)
> 
> Still, I'd appreciate feedback of any kind. Thank you for reading!
> 
> Edit: I changed the title from 300 years later to One more story. I don't know, I just thought "let's make a better summary" but I failed and got a better title instead.

**Author's Note:**

> I do not want to promise anything after repeating this exact line about three times but I think you could expect an update in a few weeks or a month. Right now I'm working on some Raloi (and a small amount of Yahg) lore I want to incorporate but if I finish that, I hope to start writing a real chapter next week. (As it stands, I believed I had one that only needed an edit but I've already posted that.)


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